How to Get More Readers to Your Blog – And Keep Them There Long Enough to Read It

How to Get More Readers to Your Blog & Keep Them There Long Enough to Read The Darn Thing?

Well, you’re not alone!  It’s a question we all wonder at some point, especially when starting out.

Usually for the first few months or even longer it appears as if no one is reading anything there, doesn’t it?

You’re writing and writing….and still not getting ANY results.

No comments,  no shares, likes, tweets, pluses, and no one contacts you through the email address you’ve so kindly left on your site….

all you find is….

NOTHING!

After you’ve spent all this time, writing your heart and soul out, nobody even sees it! Let alone cares enough to let you know whether they’ve read it or not.

Plus, after seeing the bounce rate your site is experiencing after visiting your Google Analytics account …sure you’re getting some visitors, but people  leave only a few seconds after getting there…

Well, you’re left wondering…

What on earth am I doing wrong? I’ve worked so hard writing this and did so MUCH research! I should have TONS of readers that love it….

and it still stinks! Nobody stays long enough to read anything!

Hey, don’t worry! It’s probably not you exactly…or your writing.

I’m sure if you’ve been surfing the net for awhile you’ve come across sites that you absolutely love and ones you just don’t want to bother with. Right?

Have you ever wondered why? What’s the difference between the ones you enjoy and the ones you don’t want to look at for too long?

Think about that for awhile…do you notice similarities between the ones you like? How about the ones you don’t like so much?

What Should You Do?

Well, the main thing is don’t quit! Keep on going, pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Sure, it seems no one cares, but have you ever thought about how your blog or website actually looks to others?

Take a good look at your website. What is it telling you? Anything?

Would you be able to tell what your site or blog is about if you just found it searching the internet?

If not, then you need to make some changes to let people know what you’re about. People won’t bother staying there any longer than a few seconds if they can’t tell what’s in it for them or if it’s hard to read…

they’re OUT OF THERE!

People need you to tell them what your site will help them accomplish, make better, or fix in their lives!

So, think about what exactly your site wants to get across to people and then write it down.  This should be included in the tagline of your site so people will see it right there under your site or blog name.

And, for Heaven’s sake…

write content that will actually help someone! Tell people what steps they can take to fix a problem. Make yourself useful and be helpful!

Take a LOOK at your site through a visitor’s eyes. You can even ask someone you know to take a look at it. And, ask someone you know that will give you an honest answer. Not your mother. Unless your mom can be brutally honest and tell you something other than

It’s fantastic! You’re blog thingy looks great. I’m so proud of you!

Is Your Website Hard to Read?

This is a mistake I see very often. Websites and blogs that are almost impossible to read.

Don’t get me wrong,  I love to read, but sometimes even I can’t take it! I give up and leave after a minute or two. My poor eyes can’t handle it for too long…and, no my eyes aren’t that bad either. Most of the time I don’t wear my glasses. But, after looking at some of these website blogs they start getting strained and out of focus.

Sure, sometimes the font size is the culprit. If you’re website theme has a very small font size, then try to change it if you’re able. Some themes have settings you can change in the dashboard, but others don’t.  If it doesn’t, I’d recommend changing the theme to something that does. Anyways, that’s something for another day.

It’s not always the font size that makes it hard to read. There’s a few other things that can add to how difficult your content is to read.

Things that Make Your Content Hard to Read

• Not enough white space between paragraphs
• No paragraphs- it’s all one big long paragraph
• Large enough font size
• Too many different colors
• Too many ads and irrelevant images
• Everything is written in all CAPS

Are Your Images Relevant?

Okay, I admit it. This is something I didn’t realize when I first started out and just added whatever picture I thought would look  good.

Images need to be relevant! Sure, there’s sometimes it’s darn near impossible to find an image that matches with your content. But, at least whenever possible, it’s best to stick with a relevant image to whatever you’re writing about.

Otherwise, you’ll be confusing the visitors that found your image online somewhere and clicked through, thinking one thing, only to find out it has nothing to do with the picture.

For example, you have an image of some fancy car on your post, but your writing has nothing to do with it and doesn’t mention anything about a car at all. Instead your post is about the latest sweater design…now, what does that have to do with a car?

What do you think this person that clicked through to your site using the image of that fancy car will do?

Exactly…. They’ll LEAVE!

It’ll be a waste of their time and they’ll probably not appreciate it. I know I don’t! In fact, I get a bit irritated to put it nicely. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, so don’t do it.

Who knows, if they’re irritated enough they just might remember your site… as being the one that didn’t offer what they thought, and never want to bother with it again even if they do happen to accidentally stumble across it later on.

Use Headlines to Get Reader’s Attention

Hey, haven’t you noticed? Take a look at your local newspapers, magazines, and other websites that you enjoy. What do you first notice?

The headlines, right?

Use headlines to get your reader’s attention and tell them what’s coming up in the  paragraph following it.

Make your headlines interesting and catchy, but also that relevant thing again. Headlines will help separate your content into useful chunks so people can scan your article and see what they may find useful to them.

If it’s all a big wall of paragraphs with nothing in there saying what each few paragraph is about…well, many will not want to read it. They’ll see it as a big long THING to have to read, and most won’t want to. And, if they don’t want to read it, then they won’t. They’ll leave.

It’s different on the internet. It’s just not the same as picking up an actual physical book or how you were taught to write in school anymore.

At least when I went to school, they taught a person to write longer paragraphs that were definitely more than two or three sentences long. And, as for headlines…well, I don’t really remember using them in normal writing for English and Lit classes at school.

Nowadays, on the web at least, things are different. You don’t want a big long paragraph that takes up half the page anymore and using headlines is not just for newspapers either.

You don’t need to follow those old rules you learned in school. Use whatever works to keep your reader’s attention and keep them reading.

Even if it means writing a paragraph that’s only one or two sentences. It doesn’t matter. There’s no such thing as the grammar police on the web.

As long as you get the point across, you can write however you want!

Don’t Overdo the Colors!

Okay, I know….it sure is tempting to add all these different colors and make your blog look so cool! Yup, we like to show off that we can do this and that on our websites. I get it. I’ve done that before with my first site…and then ended up taking off all the extra colors that I had in my headlines after realizing how distracting it is.

Yes, it’s distracting. By adding too many different colors, we’re just distracting our visitors. Probably making our site look like a three-ring circus too.

Get what I mean? Kind of hard to read all that wasn’t it? So, definitely don’t do THAT!

Sure, you’re probably not gonna write every word in different colors, but I wanted to make a point. Even by using different colors every other paragraph things can get distracting. Stick with one or two main colors for the most part. This will help readers realize they’re still on your blog and not someone elses.

Keep your main colors consistent. Don’t change the colors of each page on your site to look completely different. It’ll be confusing to your visitors once they get used to seeing one set of colors on one page and then go to click to a completely different looking page.

Plus, it’s known that colors can affect a person’s mood and how they feel about something…so don’t be giving your readers mood swings!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!

You’ve Got to Get It Out There

Yes, it’s up to you to spread the word that you have a new post or page on your website. You don’t need to wait for traffic to come to you through organic search results. Sure, it’ll get there eventually if you have everything SEO wise set up correctly and use keywords that have little competition. Plus, by linking comments you’ve left on related forums and blogs you might get some visitors that way. That’s if they allow you to leave a link to your site.

But, really…why sit around waiting?

Tell people you know about it, share it on your social networks such as Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and whatever other social media sites you may hang out at. If you don’t have any social sites that you’ve joined yet then get going on it. At least join one, and learn how to use it well.

Share other people’s stuff too. Don’t just share your own. Find other sites and people you find interesting, informative, or helpful and share it. Follow others that have the same interests as your niche or a similar one.

I find that by not only sharing other people’s posts, but actually commenting on them too on the social networks, you can get their attention rather easily. Leave a comment that relates to their post though, not just “nice post.” Tell them what you like about it, how it’ll help you, or ask them a question about it.

It helps to comment on their actual site or blog too. It gets their attention when you do. Most of them do check their comments or someone else does. And, maybe they’ll reply or maybe not, but either way it doesn’t hurt to get yourself out there. If they see you enough, they just might be more likely to help you out too and share your posts with their followers.

Now, wouldn’t that be awesome?

Sure, maybe some won’t even answer, but at least most of them do try to get back to you…try it, you’ll see what I mean. Usually it works to be nice to others, and they’ll be nice right back. Plus, you might even get a friend out of it.

As for which is best to find your audience? Social sites, forums, blogs..

Well, you can check out a discussion I started, which got quite a few interesting answers. Click here to read it.

Anyways, here’s the things you should do to get more readers…

Steps to Getting More Readers

• Don’t quit- it’s the reason so many fail completely – something isn’t working, find out why and change it to make it work
• Look at your site as if you’re a visitor there and have someone else that’s honest take a look too
• Write a tagline telling readers what you’re site will do for them and what they’ll get out of it
• Make your site readable –
  • Avoid useless clutter
  • Add more white space
  • Use a larger font
  • Use short paragraphs
  • Don’t write everything in CAPS
  • Use colored text wisely and sparingly
• Add relevant images
• Break content up with interesting headlines
• Keep the colors on your site to a minimum – focus on using one to two main colors throughout all your pages and posts.
• Share your posts/pages with others on social media sites – Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
• Engage with others – share their stuff too and don’t be afraid to leave them a thoughtful comment on their sites and social media posts

Whether you’re new at writing a blog or maybe you’ve been around awhile, but maybe not getting the visitors you want, then don’t give up. Try these out and see if they’ll help you. I’m pretty sure they will.

And, if you want to find a whole community of people doing the same thing as you…writing blogs, running websites, and sharing advice that works…

Well, you can join for FREE, no credit card required!

Want to learn more? Check out my #1 recommendation by clicking here.

 

Whew! Okay, if you’ve read this whole thing…Thank you!

I know it’s been a long read, which I hope you’ve enjoyed and gotten something out of it. So, until next time…

Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll be more than happy to help you!

Did you find this helpful? Have any advice you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it…please leave any comments in the box below!

Best wishes 🙂 -Sherry